Wasting Time
by shadowswan
Summary: "They'd wasted so much time just dancing around one another, and it wasn't enough anymore. Neither of them had ever really moved on. No one was ever going to compare." Fluffy Peddie one-shot, futurefic.


_Disclaimer: I do not own any characters, places etc. related to House of Anubis._

* * *

Wasting Time

Twenty, and it's all ending.

"We're doing the right thing."

"Yeah. We are."

Patricia smiled up at him, a sorrowful smile, sad that it didn't work out. Eddie returned it, placing the last box of her belongings in the back of her car.

"Look on the bright side, this is the calmest break-up we've ever been through," Patricia joked, wandering back into their little apartment to see if there was anything else of hers she'd forgotten.

"You make a good point," Eddie laughed, following her.

Patricia glanced round and sighed. She did like this little place. It was small, but it had felt like heaven to two teenagers. Two teenagers who had been stupid, and used Eddie's inheritance money to put down a deposit on a place together, when they'd only been back together for six months.

"We tried, at least," Patricia said, avoiding going into their bedroom. His bedroom.

"We tried our very hardest," he nodded, catching her by the hand and stopping her in her tracks. "And I want you to know that I don't regret this. I loved you, when we bought this place, the last year and a half. I still love you."

"But it's not enough," she finished for him. "I don't regret anything either. I never will."

He pulled her close for a final time, kissing the top of her head.

"I'd better go, I promised I'd be home before it got dark."

"Are you sure about this? You can stay here until you find a place of your own, I don't mind."

"I know you don't," Patricia said gently. "But I don't know how long that's going to be, and I can't live here with you but have a separate life. I'll be fine with my parents."

"If you ever need anything-"

"Eddie," she stopped him. "We promised a clean break."

"I know," he sighed. "See you around then."

"See you around," she smiled, reaching up to kiss him softly on the cheek.

She left the flat without looking back, hopping into her car and driving away without another wave. Eddie watched her go from the doorway, letting out a heavy sigh. There was a tiny part of his heart driving away too. But she'd been right; it wasn't enough.

Twenty, and they don't plan to see each other again.

~.~.~

Twenty one, and it's Piper's wedding. Ben's too.

"May I have this dance?"

"Are you being serious?"

Patricia looked up at Eddie like he'd lost it. He shook his head, grinning. His hand was outstretched, waiting her to take it.

"Our parents will love it. Look at them."

Piper and Ben were currently having their first dance as a couple, and Patricia's parents and Eddie's father were watching them with delight. No one really understood how it had come about. Apparently they'd started dating before Patricia and Eddie even broke up, they'd just kept it a secret.

And then of course, of course, Ben had chosen Eddie as his best man and Piper had Patricia as a bridesmaid. So here they were.

"Actually, I don't think they will. If we get up there, it'll just remind them of how their failure children managed to fail at something else."

"The one thing no one thought we'd screw up," Eddie said ruefully. "Come on, you've always loved annoying your parents."

Other couples were starting to filter onto the dancefloor, so she supposed they wouldn't attract too much attention at least.

"Fine," she said, reluctantly slipping her hand into his.

He grinned at her, leading her to a spot amongst the other couples dancing. Patricia caught Piper's eye and her sister raised an eyebrow, in a way that told Patricia she wanted all the details when they next caught up. Patricia shook her head, in a way that told her there were no details to be caught up on.

They turned to face each other, not knowing what to do. Eddie's hand on her waist, her hand on his shoulder, and their other arms outstretched felt a little too formal, but Eddie's hands at the small of her back and her arms around his neck felt a little too intimate. For a few moments they awkwardly moved their arms around, until Eddie finally settled for his hands high on her waist, hers on his shoulders.

"You know, for saying you don't like dancing, you've always been pretty good at it," Eddie remarked as they began to sway.

"I think it helps that I always have someone decent to lead me," she snorted, rolling her eyes.

"Well I know that doesn't mean me. How many other men have you danced with, Williamson?" he asked curiously.

She laughed, shaking her head and refusing to answer his question. Instead, she let her eyes flit over to where their parents were now watching them, eyes wide.

"Our parents are suitably shocked," Patricia told Eddie, taking him by surprise and manoeuvring him for a change, so he could see their faces too.

"So they are," he smiled. "We've successfully taken their attention off Piper and Ben, which will annoy them, and then we get to drop it on them that this isn't even real, so that's strike two."

Patricia nodded, and for the briefest second a wave of disappointment rolled over her. Suddenly Eddie was much too close to her, and his arms had slipped too low, and she found her hands were clasped around his neck. It hit her that she was at her sister's wedding, her sister who was now wonderfully happy, and the best dance partner she could find was her ex-boyfriend.

"You know, I'm not sure I want to dance anymore," she said hurriedly, letting go and quickly walking away from the dancefloor.

Eddie's hands fell to his side in surprise, as he watched her thread her way through some tables.

"Are you okay? Do you want some company?" he called after her, trying to fight his own way through the maze.

"No, I'm fine," she reassured him, barely glancing his way. "Just need some air."

He paused for a second then followed her anyway, finding her on one of the benches outside. The reception was being held at a place meant for weddings, so the outside was just as beautiful as indoors. Perfectly maintained gardens, rose bushes everywhere, plenty of old trees with birds in them still tweeting.

Patricia had chosen an old metal bench, a curled pattern in the back which let the light from the setting sun trickle through. Evening was starting to fall, and the air had turned a little colder, but he barely noticed as he took a seat next to her.

For a long while, long enough for the sky to grow darker, they sat together in silence. Eddie had a pretty good idea of where Patricia's thoughts were at, as his own had taken a similar turn after she'd dropped her arms from around him. The loss of contact left him feeling more sad than it should have done.

"You okay?" he asked finally.

"I'll be fine," she smiled, turning to face him.

"Sure?"

"Sure."

"Do you want to borrow my jacket at all, it's getting kind of-"

"Eddie, I'm fine."

"Good."

There was another long pause after that, in which time a strong breeze sent shivers all down Patricia, giving her goosebumps up her arms. She refused to accept Eddie's jacket though, because for some reason it would mean more to both of them than it should.

"For your information, Miller, I haven't actually danced with many other men. In fact, I haven't danced with any."

"Why?" he asked simply, feeling a strange sort of happiness at her answer.

"Turns out, there aren't many tin cans around."

Twenty one, and they can't even bring themselves to hug one another.

~.~.~

Twenty one, again, and she's having a complete disaster.

"Oh god, thank you so much for coming."

Her voice held only relief as she opened to the door to Eddie.

It had only been fifteen minutes since her long, rambling, highly stressed out and very apologetic phone call, but she was so caught up in what a terrible day she was having that she barely even noticed the time. He'd dropped everything for her, of course. Just her voice was enough to reassure him of the fact she needed someone right now.

"It's no problem, but I'm not sure I can be much help," he said doubtfully.

"Honestly, anything you manage to do will be more useful than the mess I'm making," she laughed, but it was a nervous laugh, one that sounded on the verge of hysterics.

"So what's the problem exactly?"

"The tap just wouldn't turn on, so I unscrewed something, thinking it would help, and the water just flew out. I don't even know what happened, I turned it off again so quickly."

He couldn't help but smile as he noticed for the first time that her top was completely soaked on the front, and a few strands of hair round her face were dripping.

"Not much of a plumber then?"

"Don't push me," she growled.

"So why did I get roped into this?" asked Eddie, dropping to the floor and leaning back under her sink to try and figure out what she'd done, and what had gone wrong in the first place.

"You were my last resort," she reassured him, missing the sarcastic mumbling that accompanied her statement. "I tried about ten local plumbers, but they're all either busy or taking the day off, because of course this would happen on a bank holiday, and all of the big companies said it would take at least a day to get out here. Mum and dad are visiting Ben and Piper in London, and Fabian's out of the city for the day."

"So you got stuck with me," Eddie laughed.

"Apparently so," Patricia shrugged. "Thank you so much for coming to help me. You didn't have to. I'll find a way to pay you back."

"You don't have to pay me back," he sighed, rolling his eyes even though she couldn't see. "Although if you don't mind, putting the kettle on would be very welcome."

"Oh, have you fixed it?" Patricia asked, her eyes shining. "Already?"

"I think so," he said slowly, edging himself out from under her sink. "Try it."

"You try it," she replied, frowning at him. "What if you're just pranking me?"

"Patricia, we're twenty one now. I've grown up a little bit."

She eyed him, her arms folded, but she couldn't see any hint of a lie on his face. He had indeed fixed it for her.

"If this goes wrong," she warned, wandering over to pick the kettle up and hesitantly trying the tap to fill it.

For two seconds she smiled happily as she filled the kettle with no problems, but the moment she opened her mouth to thank him, the tap suddenly exploded again, giving her another shower.

"I am so sorry," Eddie said immediately, diving in to turn the tap off. "I am so so so sorry, I honestly thought I'd tightened it."

With guilt flooding through him, Eddie's hands flapped uselessly, trying to find a towel or some tissues or anything to help dry her off with. Patricia just stood there, almost in shock, looking down at her absolutely soaked clothes and beginning to shiver as the cold water made her clothes stick to her skin.

"Here," Eddie said, finally finding a couple of teatowels and throwing one at her as he began squeezing the water out of her hair with another.

"Thank you," she said quietly, taking it from him and beginning to dab at her front.

"You know," Eddie began, his shoulders starting to shake. "Your face was pretty funny."

He looked at her, expecting a laugh, but instead she carried on pressing the towel to her clothes, trying to soak up the water. Her shoulders were beginning to shake too, but when he heard a sniff, he suddenly felt horrible.

"Hey, hey," he said, putting his hands on her shoulders to make her look at him.

Slowly she raised her head, her eyes brimming with tears.

"What's wrong? It's only water, it's going to dry. Everything's fine. I'll be able to fix it. You're all good."

"Everything is not fine," Patricia answered, her lip trembling as a few tears leaked out. "This, this stupid tap is broken and I had to call my ex-boyfriend to come and help me, because I couldn't do it myself."

"Patricia, I don't mind-" he began, but she continued, starting to properly cry now, making him panic.

"And my mum and dad aren't really in London, I just didn't want to call them because they'd never believed that I could live by myself, that I wasn't clever enough to do it, and they were right, because I can't even fix my own stupid taps, and it's probably a good job that the stupid plumber couldn't come, because I don't even know if I could afford one right now, because my stupid paycheck didn't clear from work, and I'm stood here, in my kitchen, with wet hair, and wet clothes, and-"

At this Patricia could not go on any longer, everything building up until she was sobbing into Eddie's chest. He pulled her close, not having a clue what to say, just hoping that this would be enough for now. He expected her to back away as she realised that he was holding on to her, but instead she clung on too, her arms tightening around him as he kissed her forehead.

"You'll be okay," he said softly, not letting her go. "I'm here."

"Good," she sniffed, her voice muffled against his now damp shirt, but perfectly audible to him. "Thank you."

Twenty one, and he holds her like that for an hour.

~.~.~

Twenty one, longest year of his life, and he's staring at his phone screen.

Tonight marked a year since Patricia had moved out, and the flat had never felt so empty. Eddie was sat on the carpet, legs outstretched, back against the couch, some movie playing on the television but he'd stopped watching it a long time ago.

An empty pizza box sat on one side of him, and a gradually increasing collection of empty beer bottles sat on his other. Outside it was growing dark, but he couldn't be bothered to move to switch the lights on or close the curtains, so he let his house grow dark around him.

He'd picked up his phone approximately a hundred and three times in the last five minutes, as if he was expecting her to text or call. Saying what exactly, he didn't have a clue.

_Sorry that it didn't work out._

_I'm just as lonely as you are right now, don't worry._

_Remember that time when we said we didn't regret anything? That's because up to that point, we'd never done anything we could regret. _

Of course not. She was out somewhere, at a friend's house party according to the various tags across social media at the moment. In fact, Patricia probably hadn't even clocked the date, probably hadn't even realised that tonight was the fateful night she'd cleared all of her stuff out of his flat and out of his life.

The house she was at wasn't actually too far away, only a few roads down from his place. Not that that meant anything, at all, but the idea that she was in close proximity was quite nice. That, or painful.

He hadn't found anyone else. It was this that was probably getting to him more than anything, if he was being truly honest with himself. One year had passed, and he hadn't succeeded in even taking anyone out on a second date, let alone getting serious. Sometimes it was them, more often than not it was him.

The idea that Patricia had moved on while he still missed her was a raw one.

Slowly, Eddie reached over for the remote control, finally deciding it was time to watch something else, casually checking his phone at the same time.

The second his fingers reached the remote though, his doorbell rang, scaring the living daylights out of him. He blinked for a moment, realising he'd had a little too much to drink when it took him a second to remember what that sound meant. Heaving himself up off the floor, world spinning once he was upright, Eddie made his way over to the door, trying to appear sober.

Knowing his luck, it would be his dad or someone ridiculous, just someone he didn't need to see while a little fuzzy.

As it was, the person at the door was the absolute last person he wanted to see right now, and the only person.

"Remember that time when we said we didn't regret anything?" Patricia began, looking up at him with her heavily lined eyes, her dress that made her look wildly sexy without revealing anything at all, the sky high heels that she was wobbling in.

She didn't even need to finish the sentence before Eddie was pulling her into the flat, her lips pressed to his before he even managed to kick the door closed. In moments her shoes were abandoned on the floor, her jacket and his shirt lying next to them. His face was covered in dark lipstick, but he didn't care, because it was her lipstick.

"Aren't you meant to be at a party?" he asked, as they tumbled onto the sofa, tangled up in one another.

"Yes," she sighed against him, letting her fingers trail down his bare chest and making him shiver. "Suddenly realised I felt lonely."

Her hand moved lower, thumb poised to undo his jeans, but with extreme effort, he stopped her.

"Wait," he murmured, lifting her off him and standing up in one fluid motion. Her legs wrapped around his waist, and he carried her to the bedroom, the way her lips tickled his ear reassuring him that while they were both too drunk to be thinking about this seriously, they were too far gone to stop now.

Together they fell onto their old bed, picking up where they'd left off.

When morning rolled around, Patricia cringed at herself for what had happened. She took a moment to admire Eddie's sleeping form, and remember how much she enjoyed this bed, then got up as quietly as possible. Tracing her steps through the rooms, Patricia gathered her belongings together and snuck out of the apartment, trying not to slam the door.

Eddie slept on, blissfully unaware.

Twenty one, and they've just had their first one night stand... with each other.

~.~.~

Twenty two, and it's Joy's engagement party. Fabian's too.

Patricia tugged at her dress self-consciously as she wandered into the bar they were all meeting at. For some reason, everything had fallen into place quite well, and they'd all been able to make it, which meant Patricia was seeing some of her school friends for the first time in four years.

"Hey stranger," Joy called out, waving her over to where there was a small gathering growing.

Patricia grinned and wandered over to her best friend, rolling her eyes at the greeting.

"The past six hours have been hard on me too," Patricia reassured her, giving her a hug.

"I'm so glad you went for the blue dress, it looks so much better than the green outside of the shop," Joy gushed, looking approvingly at Patricia's attire.

Patricia went to reply, but a cough to her side made her laugh and turn her attention to Fabian.

"Well fancy seeing you here," she said warmly, finding herself caught in one of Fabian's bear hugs almost instantly.

"A shocker, I know," Fabian smiled. "Thanks for coming."

"Like I would miss my best friend's engagement party. Especially when her fiancé is my best friend too," Patricia laughed.

"She makes a good point," Joy turned to Fabian, and he nodded, giving her a kiss on the nose and smiling.

"But seriously, congratulations, again, you two," Patricia said, joking aside. "I'm so happy for you."

"Thank you," they said in unison, grinning at her, and then at each other.

"Right, I'm going to mingle, behave?" Fabian said, his comment halfway between a suggestion and a plea as he wandered away.

"Quite a few people here then," Patricia remarked, glancing at the various people milling around.

"Yeah, I'm so glad Fabes decided against going for a meal, we would have needed to hire out an entire restaurant," Joy laughed. Glancing at her phone, she grinned. "Mara and Jerome are on their way, it's so sweet that we're all reuniting."

"So sweet," Patricia said distractedly, having just caught sight of a man stood alone, leaning against the bar with an infuriatingly lazy smile playing on his face.

He was watching her, and while she tried to avoid his gaze, it was starting to become hopeless.

"Ooh, that's Fabian's dad, I'd better go and say hi," Joy told Patricia, and she nodded. "I'll be back in a minute. Just to warn you that Eddie's here somewhere."

"Noted," Patricia told her, waiting until she was sufficiently far away before she sidled over to the bar.

Patricia hadn't told Joy about the night her and Eddie had hooked up, nor the other few nights since then. She wasn't sure why she was holding it back, but it just didn't feel quite right. They weren't exactly a thing, and neither of them wanted to be a thing. Usually all that happened was that one of them would show up on the other's doorstep, gone before breakfast the next morning.

It was ridiculous really, but that was where they were at.

"The blue does look better," Eddie said from beside her, not looking up from his drink.

"Vodka lemonade please," Patricia told the man behind the bar, then without missing a beat, replied to Eddie airily. "You're only imagining how good it will look on your bedroom floor later."

Eddie nearly choked on his drink and Patricia smirked, still not looking at him.

"There you go," the bartender said, handing her the drink as she smiled at him.

"Thank you," Patricia said, reaching into her bag for her purse. Before she could pull out any money though, she watched a ten pound note appear under her nose, passed from one hand to another.

"You don't need to buy me drinks," Patricia told Eddie.

"Who said anything about plural?" he countered, his voice still a little scratchy from moments ago.

"Fair enough," she nodded. "Thanks for the drink then."

Finally they turned to look at each other, grinning. Patricia's dress really was a striking blue, and he liked the quirky silver heels she was wearing too, especially what they did to her legs. Meanwhile Patricia admired Eddie's suit, dark grey and well tailored. He looked sharp, and she'd always found it hard to resist him dressed up at the best of times.

"Oh, you found each other," Joy said, looking at Patricia with pity. Patricia grimaced back, trying not to catch Eddie's eye.

"I was only getting a drink," Patricia reassured her, letting herself be guided away by her friend.

"Come on, Amber just arrived and we want a girls' picture."

Joy still hadn't forgiven Eddie for the break-up with Patricia, even though Patricia had told her a million times that they'd both agreed it was for the best, and they'd both been completely fine about it. It amused her, because Fabian still took Eddie's side, and no matter how many times they'd insisted it was a mutual decision to end things, they refused to accept it. The only thing Joy and Fabian disagreed on.

As Patricia wandered away, she flicked three fingers up at Eddie behind her back, not even needing to turn round to know he'd seen.

Three and a half minutes later, Patricia looked around furtively, then snuck around the corner leading to where the bathrooms were. Quickly she walked up the length of the wall then turned again, to where there was an alcove set into the wall.

"You're late," Eddie teased her.

"Amber insisted she looked awful in every photo," Patricia said, rolling her eyes.

Eddie went to reply but she stopped him quite effectively by reaching up to give him a slow kiss, her arms around his neck. He returned it for quite some time, until Patricia could feel the pins in her hair loosening under his touch, and then suddenly he pulled away, shaking his head.

"We're at a party," he half laughed, his head in his hands. "And if this carries on, we're going to have to excuse ourselves in about five minutes."

"Who said anything about we?" she asked, eyebrow raised, cheeks flushed.

He shot her a look, challenging her, then decided against it, beginning his walk back to the main room. Patricia gave it a few moments, telling herself it was so they didn't look suspicious, but actually just pulling herself together, then followed him.

She avoided him all night, doing her best never to end up in a conversation less than five metres away, but when everything started to wind down, and she wandered outside to find him leaning against his car, she started to crumble. The colour of his suit matched his car, but it was getting hard to tell as night closed in.

"Can I give you a ride home?" he asked, as she found herself automatically walking in his direction.

"Where's home?"

"Wherever you want it to be."

The next morning, Patricia's first thought wasn't to slip out of Eddie's bed as quietly as possible. Instead she rolled over, feeling very relaxed beneath the thick squashy duvet she still missed, and threw an arm over Eddie's bare chest. Sleepily he lifted his arm and pulled her closer to him, making a noise of contentment without even opening his eyes. She smiled, falling back to sleep in his arms.

Twenty two, and she doesn't leave the apartment until lunchtime, the next day.

~.~.~

Twenty three, and it's Patricia's birthday.

"Hey, are you okay?" Joy asked in a worried voice, touching Patricia's arm and scaring the life out of her.

"Oh, Joy," Patricia gasped, hand on her racing heart. She'd been completely focused on the front door, oblivious to her own party happening around her.

"Am I really that scary?" she laughed.

"No, no, sorry, I was just a bit distracted."

"Waiting for someone to arrive?" Joy asked, looking puzzled. "Aren't most of us here by now?"

"Yeah," Patricia nodded brightly. "Just a few faces missing."

"Hey I haven't seen Alfie yet," Joy pointed out.

"And that is exactly who I was looking for," Patricia grinned. "I'm sure he'll be here soon though."

"For sure," Joy smiled. "Is the rest of the party okay?"

"It's amazing," Patricia said, turning to her best friend this time to show her that she truly meant it. "Thank you."

Patricia's tiny place was nowhere near big enough to host a party, unless it was a sleepover with only Joy invited, so she'd told her friends that she probably wasn't going to do anything to celebrate. She'd already planned to go out for a meal with her family, so she'd intended to just invite her closest friends to that too.

Between them, Joy and Amber had put up an opposition to be reckoned with. Immediately they'd taken charge. Patricia could hold a birthday party at Joy and Fabian's house, and Amber had spent an entire day buying balloons, glitter, sequins, glitter, banners, and more glitter. It had been somewhat overwhelming, although very sweet. Patricia had just handed Amber some money and told her to go wild, which she'd very much taken to heart.

And now here they were, family, school friends, work friends, all gathered in one house with an enormous birthday cake in the centre of the room. Patricia should have been having the time of her life at the best birthday party she'd ever had, and which probably wouldn't be topped in the future. And she was having a great time, she was, but she'd slipped a name into the guest list without the girls noticing, only her secret invite had obviously gotten lost in the post, because he was nowhere to be seen.

"You're welcome," Joy smiled, giving her best friend another hug. "You're my best friend, I wasn't about to let you get away with a movie and popcorn night."

"Well I would've been fine with it," Patricia began, but Joy rolled her eyes, so she shut up. "But this is much better."

"Alfie!" they heard Amber squeal from near the door, and they both laughed.

"I'd better go say hi, I'll see you later," Patricia said, heading over to where Alfie and Willow had stepped into the room.

"Happy birthday!" Willow gushed as she gave Patricia a huge hug, her never ending energy still present. Always present.

"Thank you," Patricia said nervously, hugging her back tentatively.

"Happy birthday, Trixie," Alfie grinned, rescuing her from his over-enthusiastic girlfriend. "She had sugar on the way here."

Patricia laughed at Alfie's muttered comment, shaking her head and watching Willow talk animatedly at Amber and her boyfriend. They both looked faintly afraid, then relieved when Alfie caught his girlfriend round the waist again and pulled her back to Patricia.

"Hope you like it," Alfie said, handing Patricia her present.

"Oh, yes," Willow grinned, clapping her hands.

"She chose it, so if you don't like it, it's her fault," Alfie added, earning himself a nudge from Willow.

"It's lovely," Patricia smiled, tipping the little velvet bag so the black beaded bracelet inside fell into her palm. "Thank you."

"Very welcome," Alfie said, winking at Willow. "We're going to head over to Jerome and Mara, so we'll see you later. Have a great party."

"Thanks," Patricia called after them. "And thanks for coming!"

They made it a few metres across the floor before Alfie darted back, looking at Patricia with sudden fear.

"There is a cake, right?"

Before Patricia could reply, Joy miraculously appeared beside her, tutting and manoeuvring Alfie in the direction of the well-stocked dessert table.

"Sometimes she scares me," Fabian sighed from the other side of Patricia, watching his soon to be wife telling Alfie off for scooping some icing off with his finger.

"She scares us all," Patricia agreed.

"So," Fabian began, turning to her.

"So, what?" asked a confused Patricia.

"I don't think he's coming," Fabian said softly, looking at her with pity.

"Who?" Patricia asked innocently.

"Nice try," he laughed. "Eddie told me everything."

"Everything?" she asked, outraged.

"Well, I assume not everything, some details I was fine to be kept out of the loop with," Fabian reassured her. "But he did tell me that you two haven't really done this breaking up thing properly for the last few years."

"I don't think it really means anything," Patricia shrugged, trying to sound offhand.

"And that's why it's midnight at your own birthday party, which is in full flow with far, far too many people here already," Fabian said, sounding exasperated at Joy. "But all you've done is stare at the door."

"He said he'd come," Patricia said sadly.

"Well that's Eddie for you," Fabian said, squeezing her shoulder. "He might still be coming. You never know."

"The party started three hours ago," she sighed, raising an eyebrow at him. "You're right. I'm being silly. He isn't coming."

"I'm sorry, Patricia," Fabian said. "Might be for the best though. This weird thing you have going on can't really be good for either of you."

Patricia muttered something Fabian couldn't distinguish, before smiling at him and drifting off to the other side of the room, not really enjoying their conversation. She'd known after the first hour and no apology text that he wasn't coming, but she'd been half-kidding herself into thinking that he still was.

"Dance?" Joy asked, pouncing on her as she crossed the room.

"Actually, I'm just nipping to the toilet," Patricia lied, heading in that general direction.

Once she was safely a couple of rooms away from the main party, Patricia took a moment to try and pull herself together. Here she was, surrounded by her favourite people in the world, with this amazing party, and she was moping over one guy who hadn't even bothered to tell her he couldn't make it.

It was ridiculous.

Plastering a smile on to her face, Patricia wandered back to the living room, determined to have a good night, and not to let on that she wasn't having anything but the utmost fun. Just as she was about to head over to a group of her friends from work though, the front door was opened again, and it was like there was no one in the room all of a sudden.

She stood, frozen to the spot, watching him as he looked around frantically and finally locked eyes with her. Patricia missed Joy's exclamation of surprise, missed Amber's excitement, missed Fabian's ear to ear grin. All she noticed was Eddie forcing his way through the crowded room to her, his expression guilty and annoyed.

"I love you," were his first words to her, after pausing for a moment to catch his breath.

Patricia blinked.

"Well, most people have started with happy birthday tonight, but that works too."

"You're such... an idiot," he laughed, his face clearing. "Happy birthday."

"Technically you've missed my birthday by... twenty three minutes," she informed him, checking her watch. She didn't even care that they were attracting a few glances.

"Work... got out late... traffic," he tried to explain with a wave of his hand, still a little out of breath. "Ran."

"I can see that."

"Also I've left your present at my house," he said apologetically.

"Not your night, is it?"

"I mean I could improvise," he suggested.

"Oh really?" she smiled, and he grinned back. "What did you have in mind?"

Slowly Eddie leaned in to kiss her, wrapping his arms round her but keeping it light and sweet. He wanted her to know that this wasn't just a one night thing for him anymore. He was through with that. They'd wasted so much time just dancing around one another, and it wasn't enough anymore. Neither of them had ever really moved on. No one was ever going to compare. So here he was. Telling her that he loved her at her birthday party, and he was pretty sure by the kiss she was giving him in return, that she felt the same.

"Just saying, you're a little sweaty," Patricia said as they finally pulled away from each other.

"Unbelievable."

"And I love you too."

They grinned at one another, then suddenly became aware of their surroundings again. Gradually they turned round to face the rest of the room, most people staring at them with open mouths. Half of Patricia's friends didn't even know who Eddie was, and those that did were surprised to say the least.

"Didn't plan this through then, did we?" Eddie muttered from the side of his mouth.

"Nah, probably could have done a little better," Patricia replied.

"Feels right though," he grinned, taking her hand. "Like we're doing the right thing."

"Yeah. We are," she reassured him, giving him one more kiss on the cheek.

Twenty three, and it's all beginning.

* * *

_A/N: Been working on this for a while, so I figured I'd finally get it finished and published. I know I should be writing new chapters for other stories, one in particular, but I can't seem to write it at the moment. Hoping this will shift some of my writer's block. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this pure Peddie fluff, haven't done it in a while. I recently posted another Peddie one-shot, _Another Place_, so please feel free to check that out too. Plus it's much shorter! Reviews are welcomed, thanks for reading! _:)_  
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